Just in time for the National Bike Summit going on in Washington, D.C., Google announced today that it is adding a bike lane to its latest online mapping service. According to company information, the service highlights bike routes for 150 cities across the country. Google says that it made an effort to find routes that would encounter the least amount of motorized traffic and try to avoid major hills and obstacles. 

Perhaps one of the best features is that the routes are adjustable. If the prescribed route that Google suggests is not direct enough, you can play with the system to create a better route for you. This is a big step forward to promote biking as viable form of transportation. We support any tool that promotes biking as bicycle transportation is a fun, economical, healthy, and environmentally friendly option.

The new biking maps functionality can be seen here: http://maps.google.com/maps?hq=http://maps.google.com/help/maps/directions/biking/mapplet.kml&ie=UTF8&ll=37.687624,-122.319717&spn=0.346132,0.727158&z=11&lci=bike&dirflg=b&f=d&utm_campaign=en&utm_medium=ha&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-bk-bd&utm_term=google%20bike%20maps